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January 17, 2007

'War of Fleas'

Michelle Malkin and Bryan Preston have returned from Iraq. She provides a brief overview of her visit, a few pictures, outlines what she'll be writing about over the next days and provides many links more than worth your time in following.

Modern war in the Middle East is no longer as cut-and-dry as shooting all the bad guys and going home. We are fighting a "war of the fleas"--not just Sunni terrorists and Shiite death squads, but multiple home-grown and foreign operators, street gangs, organized crime, and freelance jihadis conducting ambushes, extrajudicial killings, sectarian attacks, vehicle bombings, and sabotage against American, coalition, and Iraqi forces. Cellphones, satellites, and the Internet have allowed the fleas to magnify their importance, disseminate insurgent propaganda instantly, and weaken political will.

I came to Iraq a darkening pessimist about the war, due in large part to my doubts about the compatability of Islam and Western-style democracy, but also as a result of the steady, sensational diet of “grim milestone” and “daily IED count” media coverage that aids the insurgency.

I left Iraq with unexpected hope and resolve.

Michelle expresses high praise for the US troops she met and embedded with but, of course, wait for the goal-post moving as some slam her visit. Heaven forfend that after mocking her for not going over herself that she did, but now if she has not enlisted, trained and done a tour as a soldier she has nothing "authentic" to say.

Amazing to see the 'chickenhawk' meme continuing to reinvent itself to provide a political security blanket for the intellectually berift.

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Posted by Darleen at January 17, 2007 06:34 AM

Comments

OK, I read it.

These soldiers are well aware of the history, culture, and sectarian strife that has wracked the Muslim world for more than a millennium.

They are? Gee, that strikes me as a hyperbolic statement. After all, the Baker report (and James Baker spent a wee bit more time in Iraq than your girl) pointed out that of the 1,000 people holed up in the embassy in the Green Zone there were only 6 people fluent in Arabic.
Do we really have a greater percentage of Arabic speaking soldiers? Are they really being trained in history and culture? I am asking an honest question because I don't pretend to know -- and I'm sure you don't either.

I could go on, but you would expect liberals like me to nitpick and scoff, wouldn't you?

How about the AP's man, Jamil Hussine? Where is he? Did she find him? Does she care? Do you?

Do you believe that voting against the "surge" is a bad idea? Why?

And if you aren't interested in these questions then how are you any different than the "intellectually berift (sic)" Left?

Posted by: Brad at January 17, 2007 10:22 AM

I'm glad Mz Malkin has hope; nobody else does.

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at January 17, 2007 12:39 PM

Brad said

"They are? Gee, that strikes me as a hyperbolic statement. After all, the Baker report (and James Baker spent a wee bit more time in Iraq than your girl) pointed out that of the 1,000 people holed up in the embassy in the Green Zone there were only 6 people fluent in Arabic.
Do we really have a greater percentage of Arabic speaking soldiers? Are they really being trained in history and culture? I am asking an honest question because I don't pretend to know -- and I'm sure you don't either."


Where is the hyperbole? Certainly troops have been briefed on “the history, culture, and sectarian strife”.
You miss or ignore the point: our Troops have spent more time in Iraq than James Baker, not Mallkin.
And no, I don’t think we have such a great number of Arabic speaking soldiers, nor are they specifically trained in that history and culture. They are trained to go into the street and gather information and intelligence.

As to Jamil Hussein (sp?)...stay tuned.

Posted by: Hugh at January 17, 2007 05:27 PM

I believe the phrase is "cut-and-dried," not "cut-and-dry."

Malkin's thoughts are a great example of how a committed ideologue lets her beliefs lead her to the facts, rather than vice versa. In her view, the Iraq war might fail because Islam may be fundamentally incompatible with Democracy, rather than what because of a series of policy mistakes that she supported or fundametal limitations on the ability of the American military to nation-build. Never mind that Turkey, just north of the country she just visited, is both a representative democracy and majority muslim. She's never been much of a thinker, but this is an embarrassing piece of hackwork even by her standards.

Posted by: Josh at January 17, 2007 10:50 PM